A 55-year-old Eldoret granny has been charged with drugging her grand-daughter to get her defiled by her father.
The court heard that the granny would intoxicate the granddaughter, 12, with traditional chang’aa to enable the minor’s father to defile her. She would then warn the child not to tell anyone.
The woman was arrested by police officers from Huruma Police Station in Uasin Gishu county after Eldoret Senior Resident Magistrate Barnabas Kiptoo directed the officer in charge of the station to arrest her in November 2022.
It followed a case where her son- the minor’s father, was sentenced after he was found guilty of incest and defilement.
The court heard that on August 2, 2020, at Huruma estate in Eldoret town, the granny administered chang’aa to her grandchild, with the intention to have her defiled by her biological father.
Indecent acts
The woman also faced an alternative charge of induced indecent acts with the minor.
In last year’s court proceedings, a 33-year-old son of the accused was handed 40 years in jail after he was found guilty of defiling his daughter, with the help of his mother.
The minor told the court that her grandmother used to give her alcohol before she was defiled by her father.
The court also heard that on diverse dates between March 13, 2020, and August 2020, the granny intentionally and unlawfully compelled the child aged 12 years to engage in sexual intercourse with an adult.
The accused denied the charges.
Detained
State Counsel Miriam Sakari opposed her release on bond, imploring the court to wait for a pre-bail report from probation officers to ascertain whether she qualifies to be released on bond.
Mr Kiptoo directed that the accused be detained at Eldoret Women’s Prison, pending the pre-bail report.
The case will be mentioned on March 16 when probation officers will present in court a pre-bail report.
The testimony of the minor made in court last year caused the magistrate to order the arrest of the accused, who had gone underground after the directive.
Granny watched
While he was being sentenced in 2022, the prosecution told the court that the man, who lived in a one-bedroom semi-permanent house with his daughter and his mother (the girl’s grandmother) used to defile the minor in the presence of the granny.
The court heard that the duo would give the girl chang’aa and once she became intoxicated, he would carry her to his bed and defile her.
“I used to find myself on my father’s bed with a lot of pain in my private parts. My grandmother used to wash me after the incident as she frequently told me not to tell anybody,” the minor told the court in 2022 through her statement in the court files.
In her submission, Ms Sakari the State Counsel told the court that the incident traumatised the child. The minor has since been relocated to a rescue centre with the help of children officers from Turbo Sub County.
